We Walk By Faith.

I haven’t written a devotional in….way too long, so forgive me if this is a bit hard to follow. I’ll just drop some scripture to begin with and expand on it afterward.

 

Proverbs 20:24- “A man’s steps are from the LORD, how then can man know His way?”

Heb. 11:8- “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going”

 

If the connection in the two scriptures above doesn’t stick out to you like a sore thumb, what the writers are respectably saying is that when our faith relies on God’s will and guidance, it is not for us to know the paths our lives are taking, but our lives are led to the promise land through a narrow path where we follow none but Christ. Abraham is our example of blind faith by leading the nation of Israel to the promised land, which in reality is heaven – this pilgrimage to Israel was to prepare for the eventual coming of Christ:

Heb 11:10 “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”

Heb. 11:14-16 “For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.”

In short, Abraham and his followers were the beginners of the very pilgrimage we are on, “…having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth”(Heb. 11:13), just as we are. In living in this world and persevering through our faith, we are the heirs of the inheritance of Abraham, on the last leg of the same journey, to the kingdom that cannot be shaken mentioned in Hebrews 12.

Let’s expand on what faith is and the full spectrum of its power and source.

Heb. 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction (some translations say “evidence”) of things not seen.

So if faith has survived on from the spirit of God throughout eternity, then faith is of the spirit. If it is of God’s spirit, it is from God and God alone. Therefore the faith that resides within us IS our assurance and our evidence, because the faith we contain is so powerful and saving and leads to grace, which is undeniable evidence of not only God’s presence in our lives, but His very existence.

Heb. 11:7 “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”

Being an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith means that he shares in OUR inheritance, because we, in Christ, are given the same title. This means that his act of faith bears some connection with Christ and HIS purpose. So what was the ark, and the flood exactly? We see that the flood was a massive outpouring of God’s wrath on earth, the first destruction. The ark was, then, a vessel of salvation from God’s wrath, as was the physical body of Christ. Likewise, under the new covenant, Christ is our ark from the “flood” of God’s wrath that is to come.

In Hebrews 11 again, we also see evidence of Christ’s constant presence throughout man’s history, even thousands of years before his physical arrival among man.

Heb. 11:24-28 “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them”

 

Moses, even though he knew not the identity of Christ, knew Christ’s deity and knew the glory of His reproach and persecution, and suffered through it in joy. “He endured as seeing him who is invisible”, meaning he lived as if he was one of the disciples following Christ, seeing him in person, and sprinkled lamb’s blood, which protected him and his people from the destroyer-not Satan, but the wrath of God. That’s Christ’s everlasting presence.

So now that we see Christ and His connection and involvement with all of mankind, and how he encompasses all of time, and how we are preceded by mighty men and women of faith, the faith that is to guide our lives, I’ll end this as it began, with the word of God.

Heb. 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, [2] looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Beards and the State of Manhood

Anyone who really knows me could’ve probably put money on me devoting my very elusive free time to writing my first post on a blog intended for semi-serious use, and writing something…not so serious. But I’ve been mulling over this for a while, and I think I’ve got something that deserves some actual consideration here, tongue-in-cheek as it is.

Bear with me.

If you’ve watched T.V., or really just been out in public lately, you’ll notice something about men that’s changed recently: beards are making a comeback. Majorly. They are slowly becoming more socially – and professionally – acceptable, carrying less negative connotations, and have even managed to gain their own internet following. The beard is becoming its own subculture. However, being the history nerd I am, while browsing through various images of strong, respectable historical figures, the majority of which wore facial hair, I began to ponder something: When did beards ever go out of style? When did we begin considering them something that makes men look unclean, lazy, sketchy, or low-class? From the dawn of creation, and countless eons after, almost every group of people – save for ethnic groups who just genetically don’t grow facial hair – had strong male leaders who wore at least a mustache, if not a full-on beard. Warriors, politicians, artists, religious leaders, they all had face-fuzz. Given, there are some pretty tough, manly, and notable men in the history of the world who didn’t wear facial hair, and some pretty trashy guys who did. Let me just compile a list of a few men throughout history who held respectable positions, and kept respectable beardage.

• Abraham
• Moses
• Every Jewish priest, ever (in line with the commandment given to the Levitical line of priests in Lev. 19:28)
• Pretty much every man in the Old Testament because this is going to take a while
• Jesus
• Sophocles
• Pretty much every Greek philosopher
• Michelangelo
• William Shakespeare
• King Leonidas
• Fast forwarding………
• Abraham Lincoln
• James Bowie (Texas history figure)
• Charles H. Spurgeon (One of the most impactful pastors, ever)
• Ernest Hemingway (Awesome author and all around bad-ass)
• Albert Einstein (Just a mustache, but still)
• Col. Harland David Sanders (The real-life KFC guy)
• John Shaft (fictional, but so what)
• Grizzly Adams (the man trained Grizzly bears…by the power of beard.)
• Chuck Norris
• ZZ Top
• Ron Swanson

Those last three matter…just because. The real point is, there’s a notable difference, somewhere in between the transition from black-and-white to color photography, in the appearance of men in great leadership positions. I’m talking the big stuff: politics, the military, and even law enforcement. Beards disappeared. The last president to wear facial hair was Theodore Roosevelt. Undoubtedly one of the toughest men ever in office. Remember?…like…back when America won wars? Many leaders of law enforcement agencies wore beards too. Back when they weren’t concerned about being politically correct, no one filed unlawful use of force claims, and justice was administered swiftly. Also, just to ruffle some feathers, nobody argued about marriage equality until men started losing their beards, either. Maybe it has something to do with society’s turn towards preferring clean shaven, more boyish-looking men. Maybe we began to like our men looking more innocent, gentle, and dare I say feminine? I’m not saying knocking your beard off makes your sexuality questionable…but. The irony in the historical timeline is impossible to ignore.

So I guess the big question is, did the cultural demise of the beard contribute to the overall downfall of masculinity and strong male leadership? Is it maybe a sign of something bigger – men forgetting what we were created to be, becoming less capable, less “manly”, and thus shedding something that long stood as a symbol of our manhood? I think it’s something to ponder.

Beard on, men.

“The beard signifies the courageous; the beard distinguishes the grown men, the earnest, the active, the vigorous. So that, when we describe such, we say, he is a bearded man.”

-St. Augustine

Supreme Ambitions of the Lowly Heart

If I could, would I?
If I couldn’t, would I still try?
To succeed would be a dream come true….
It’s funny, the irony, to succeed, I must die
But in that death I would live,
Free from flesh, free from sin
I’d have the liberty to triumph, choosing life over limb.
This vessel is so imperfect, so fallible, so frail…
Not nearly fit for the greatness of the spirit that it veils.
So do I hold the potential to obtain my ambitions?
Not within this body, not even in the prime of its fitness.
But still I persevere, following the prime example
Of how to live in a doubting world with a faith far more than ample.
So though my body has its limits, and this world has its boundaries,
I refuse to have this power capped and casted by its foundries.
So this is my declaration of war
From my valley to their mountains
The last shall be first, and you’ll be moved by my denouncement.